DJ Premier first met Drake in 2010, during a JAY-Z and Eminem concert at Yankee Stadium. At the time, the burgeoning young star bowed down to the veteran producer, whose work as half of Gang Starr with the late rapper Guru and as a beatmaker for everyone from Nas to the Notorious B.I.G. helped define New York hip-hop in the ’90s. Now, eight years later, Drake and Preem have released their first-ever collaboration.

“Sandra’s Rose” is Drake’s latest tribute to his mother, who was recently dragged into the fray on Pusha-T’s scathing diss track, “The Story of Adidon.” The song also feels like an attempt to transcend rap-beef pettiness, with Drake comparing himself to Adele over a soulful sample flipped in classic Preemo style. (OVO Sound-affiliated producer Maneesh created the sample himself, despite the vintage-sounding instrumentation and “baby, baby, baby” vocal harmonies.) DJ Premier, speaking in a subdued rasp that quivers when discussing the recent loss of his father, explains how the song came to be.

Pitchfork: How did you and Drake link up in the first place?

DJ Premier: It was mutual respect. I had heard of his music a long time ago because I have a lot of friends in Canada; one of the first Drake demos I heard, he was rhyming to a Run-D.M.C. “Sucker MC’s”-style beat. And we would see each other in various times. About six years ago, I remember Guru’s son, who was probably 12 at the time, asked if he could meet Drake when he was on tour. They were like, “Absolutely, Guru’s son can come hang with us.” Even then, we’d always say the same thing: “We gotta do something one day.”

How did it finally end up happening?

My manager was like, “Drake’s working on a new album, you should see if you can get on it.” I dropped [Drake’s longtime producer] 40 a text and said, “Hey man, if there’s a slot, let me know.” He was like, “Actually, there is. Let me get back to you.”

A couple of weeks passed, and then my father got sick, so I had to head to Texas at the beginning of June. My focus wasn’t on music at that time, but just in case, I brought my drum machine and computer with me to my mom and dad’s house. I’d check on my dad, because he was on hospice care in the back bedroom, and then I’d come out and start tap-tapping on the drum machine, and making sure everything was tight. It kept my mind occupied. On June 8, he passed at home, like he wanted. We sent him off right.

Then 40 hit me up again and said Drake wanted me to flip a couple of samples and give them “the Preem bounce”—the way my drums bounce and the way I play my basslines. One was called “Sail” that Rick Ross had a verse on, and it didn’t make the album. The other one was “Sandra’s Rose.” I was like, “He’s obviously going to make sure he touches on that properly just for the name alone.” That title carries a lot of weight.

I told them, “Hey, I’m dealing with my father right now,” because he had passed at that point. 40 said, “Look man, I don’t care if you send it on June 27th, the album’s still gonna come out on the 29th, and we will still be mixing songs and recording down to the day we upload.” So I sent a rough demo, got home at probably 5 in the morning, and then woke up at 6:30. The first thing I always say is “thank you” when I open my eyes, and soon as I said “thank you,” my text goes doo-doop. It was from 40, with a vocal snippet already on it. I was like, “Oh shit.” When I heard Drake say, “You niggas scratched like Preemo,” I was like, “OK.”

I did a version with some scratches on it as well, but Drake definitely wanted to keep it more breathable for his album. I’m gonna push to see if I can get the one with the scratches to the mix show DJs, because I liked the way it tied in. I’m still happy with how it came out and I’m glad that they kept the record.

When did you hear the finished song?

The 28th!

What did you think?

I loved it.

You’ve seen many hip-hop rivalries over the years, what did you think of the battle between Drake and Pusha-T?

When I heard the “Duppy” record, I was like, “Oh my God.” And the fact that it came out the same day that Pusha dropped his album, and then when Drake sent the invoice, it was like, “Yo, man, this is crazy.”

Then, a couple of days later, when I was doing my radio show on Sirius XM, we were down to our last 10 minutes, and everyone’s texting me, “Yo, did you hear the Pusha-T response?” I stopped the music, and we listened to “The Story of Adidon” live like everybody else. My jaw dropped at least five, six, or seven times on that.

I reached out to Drake’s team after that record, and they were cool. They weren’t mad. They were like, “Hey, Pusha-T killed it and came with some shit, and now we’re getting back finishing the album.” That was the beauty of their attitude, to just move past it and get back to what you gotta do. Your diehard fans will always be with you no matter what you do, and that’s why he ain’t got nothin’ to worry about. The truth is the truth, and then you move on from it.